The Department of Culture, Media and Sport should be dissolved and responsibility for tourism and media should come under the Department of Industry, according to senior figures.
Speaking at Travelmole’s British Tourism debate, British Hospitality Association chief executive Bob Cotton said England need to follow the example of Wales where tourism falls under economic affairs.
The lack of public funding to market Britain overseas also came under the spotlight, with experts claiming the £35.5 million set aside annually to market the destination has not changed over the entire course of the Labour government.
Tourism Alliance policy director Kurt Janson said: “That’s a 25% decrease in real funding terms.”
He added that the current spending review would fix funding up until just before the Olympic Games, which if the funding remained static would represent a 45% decrease.
“How can we throw the biggest party in the world and not put any money into marketing it. There is no real perception of tourism. It’s a bit like talking to the tax man about poetry,” said Janson.
VisitBritain head of government affairs Bernard Donoghue said the government had spent more on marketing the switch from analog to digital television in the UK than on marketing Britain.
BHA’s Cotton also said the industry needed to decide the role public money should play.
“I want money to go into infrastructural issues and training and education of people in schools and colleges because the sector cannot flourish without those things.”
By Linda Fox
